Words in the Sand
by claudiastar
Summary: A trip to the beach prompts Martha to ask a few awkward questions about her predecessor. Featuring a cameo from our very own Rose. Please Review.


Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who, I mearly emulate the almighty Russel T Davies.

A.N.: wow- it has Martha in!

Words in the Sand

Martha steps out of the TARDIS taking in a deep breathe and smiling with pleasure as she looks around. Wherever they are it is beautiful. They are standing on the top of a sandstone cliff. The ground is covered in some of the greenest grass Martha has ever seen, and it drops away to a stretch of sand- golden and smooth that goes on as far as she can see both to left and right. Beyond that is the sea. A deep blue, wild foam flecked sea. There is a wind blowing that pulls Martha's hair off her face. She can smell salt. She turns grinning to the doctor who is leaning against the TARDIS, hands thrust deep into his coat pockets with a superior expression on his face. "So where are we?" she asks.

"Northumberland. On the coast, just south of the river Tweed" he says smiling.

"Ok…" she says hesitantly, "When are we then?"

He throws his head back and laughs at that "You're getting the hang of this aren't you!" he tells her. She glows with pride. "We're about three million years before you were born." He tells her, like it's a café Nero in Oxford Street they're visiting.

Her face lights up with excitement. "You mean this is prehistoric?" she says enthusiastically. "Can we see Dinosaurs and stuff?" She feels like a kid at the Zoo.

"Nah, sorry, too late for them. buuut …"he replies, trailing off temptingly.

"But what?" she says eagerly.

"There is this fantastic beach just down there." He says, gesturing beyond the cliff edge. "Think about it, no one has ever been there before, literally. It's totally unspoilt. No litter, no topless sunbathers, no beach volleyball, just you and me and the sand and the water."

He raises his eyebrows in that unbelievably sexy way that says- _won't it be amazing._

"Come on then" she laughs "What are we waiting for?!"

He holds out his hand, she takes it. He begins to run, there is a jerk on her arm and she is running too, laughing aloud, struggling to keep up, full of exhilaration. The sky here is bluer than anywhere she's ever seen it. The roar of the sea is filling her ears.

They have to scramble down a rocky slope in the cliff that forms a sort of natural path to get down to the beach, his slips from hers. Martha falls behind and looses sight of the doctor and she pants trying to keep up as she climbs down. The waves are getting loader now. Finally, gasping for breathe she arrives down of the coarse grained golden sand. She looks around for the Doctor and finally sees him standing a few metres away. All at once she knows something has changed, something is wrong, she can tell by the hunched way he's holding his shoulders. For a moment she doesn't understand why. Then she sees them. The words scrawled in huge jagged letters in the sand in front of him.

"**BAD WOLF"**

Slowly she walks towards the Doctor. She reaches out a hand hesitantly, touching his bony shoulder. There is a hard dark expression in his eyes.

"Doctor?" she says nervously. When he is in this kind of mood she is almost frightened of him, "you alright?"

He forces an overly bright smile onto his face and says "You know me, I'm always alright" in a falsely bright tone.

"I thought…" she begins quietly "I mean you said, no one has ever been here.

"They haven't" he replies in a suddenly flat and hard voice.

"Then… Then how did these words get here?" she asks. The waves are almost deafening now. She has a sick feeling in her stomach. The moment she says this she knows it was a mistake to ask because his moth twists in something like pain. But she is determined to understand the effect these words have had.

"Doctor," she says "Doctor what do they mean?"

He considers fobbing her off with some story about an alien invasion or perhaps super-intelligent mammoths, but as he turns around to look at her he thinks better of it. She deserves the truth.

"I think it's, it's a sort of message for me." He says, wondering how on earth he is going to explain this to her. She frowns in confusion, lines appearing between her eyes. "What do you mean a message? Who from?" Then her eyes widen as an idea strikes her "From another Timelord? Could you have been wrong? Could one have survived?" Her voice rises steadily in pitch as she says all this.

"No!" he cuts her off harshly. This his voice softens, becomes weary and sad. He runs a hand through his hair. "No… from Rose."

When she hears that name her heart sinks into her boots. She has begun in the short time she's travelled with him dread the sound of it. Its like there's a third person travelling on the TARDIS with them wherever they go.

"How? How did she leave a message here? Bad Wolf, is that some kind of cryptic crossword clue?" She says, anger rising in her voice, although she tries to suppress it. She thinks she hates Rose, hates her for abandoning the Doctor, for hurting him. She hates herself for being jealous of a ghost.

"It's complicated…" he says with a sigh "Something happened with the TARDIS a while back. These words, they're everywhere I go. Probably always will be. As to what they mean…" he hesitates fighting to find the right words. "It's something like… I'll find a way back to you, always, no matter what."

A whole load of questions bubble up in Martha's head. She doesn't even know where to start asking them. Hesitantly, not knowing what she wants the answer to be she says "Could she? Could she find a way back to you?"

"No." he says firmly. And then shakes himself as if shrugging something off. "Can we get out of here?" he says in what is close to his normal tone, and without waiting for an answer he turns and walks away, heading back towards the cliff path.

But Martha is not going to stand for that. She is fed up of half truths and hints. She folds her arms and stays where she is. He turns back towards her. "Aren't you coming?" he asks surprised.

"Nope" she says stubbornly. "Not till you decide to tell me the truth."

"About what?" he protests.

"Rose"

He sighs. Then he says in a quietly resigned voice, "what do you want to know?"

They sit together on the sand for a long time as Martha asks questions. He tells her how he met Rose, all the mad things they did together (He even tells her about the time they got lost in the Betelguese system looking for the perfect gin and tonic, and the time Jackie slapped him.) Finally he tells about Canary Wharf, about Torchwood, about she disappeared right in front of him. For everything he says the tide comes in a little further, washing away the words in the sand.

"What was the last thing she said?" Martha asks quietly. She has her hand on his.

He swallows "She said… She said I love you."

Martha takes a deep breath at that. "That's good," she says he voice shaking "I mean that's a good thing to be your last memory of someone. Knowing that they care about you.

"Maybe," he says "Maybe it just makes everything harder." His voice is tired more than anything else, very tired.

Martha squeezes his hand "I'm sorry." She says.

"Thanks." He says, and then "I'm sorry too. I haven't been the best company have I?"

"It's fine." She says

"No it's not" he replies.

She gets up and brushes sand off herself. "Let's go," she says. She wants to get away from this place.

"Would you mind if I stayed for a bit?" he asks. "There's something I want to do."

She nods and then walks away, heading back up to the TARDIS. Once she's gone he pulls the sonic screwdriver from his pocket and heads over to the cliff wall and begins to carve something into the rock. The words have disappeared

* * *

Rose is lying the sand feeling the warmth of it next to her skin. The sun is glowing on her face and the rhythmic splash of the waves is soothing. She feels relaxed for the first time in a long while. Coming to Northumberland on holiday was definitely a good idea. Suddenly there is patter of feet, a shadow falls across her and a shrill insistent voice calls "Rosie!" she opens her eyes and puts a hand up to her face to shade it. Above her is standing a small, slightly chubby, blonde girl of about six years old. 

"Hey Mia" she says smiling "what is it?"

Her little sister is practically jumping up and down with excitement. "Come and see what I've found, come on!"

Rose yawns, stretches, sits up and pulls a t-shirt over her bikini while her sister wriggles impatiently. "Alright Mia, lets see what you've found yeah."

She takes Mia's baby-round hand and allows her to lead her over a group of rock pools to the cliff wall. It's covered in thick, scented creeper. She bends down to Mia's level. "What is it babe?" she asks, smiling. Mia points excitedly at the creeper, "behind the plant," she says happily.

Curiously Rose begins to pull aside the tangle of branches; she hasn't got very far when she stops gasping in amazement. There are words carved into the stone, faded and worn, they must be very old, but still clearly distinguishable. She works furiously to clear away the plant so she can read what's been written in the rock. After several minutes it's all there.

"Goodbye my bad wolf"

There it is, plain as daylight. She says it out loud very quietly, then again more firmly. She reaches out a hand and runs her fingers over the warm mossy stone, tracing the letters.

Suddenly she is crying. She stuffs her hand into her mouth to try and hold back the sobs. "Rosie?" her sister calls in confusion and fear. "Rosie what is it? What's the matter?"

"Nothing. It's nothing sweetheart," she replies, trying to keep her voice steady, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand. She pulls Mia into a tight hug. "I'm fine," she says, holding her close.

When they leave at the end of the day, the heat having died down, as the sun is setting red and fiery across the dark blue water, she turns back for a second and says "goodbye" into the rising wind.

THE END


End file.
